GREENSBORO — Si Woo Kim took dead aim and emerged as the Wyndham Championship’s marked man Saturday.
He fired off an 8-under-par 62 that featured an ace and nearly another, a shot-making display vaulting him to 18-under for the tournament and two strokes clear of the closest pursuers among a packed field entering Sunday’s final round at Sedgefield Country Club.
It became the seventh straight round of 68 or better here at the Wyndham for Kim, the South Korean who won this event in 2016 at age 21 to capture his first PGA Tour victory.
His effort Saturday, powered by the hole-in-one and seven birdies, produced a third-round scorecard highlighted with a 1 (at No. 3) and a pair of 2s (at Nos. 12 and 16), a feast on the course’s par-3 holes.
“The key was my consistency,” Kim said through a translator. “I think that’s what helped me go low.”
Beneath skies ranging from sunny to threatening, lightning almost struck twice for Kim. He aced the 161-yard third hole with an 8-iron to jump-start his scoring. Later, on the 196-yard 12th hole, his 5-iron landed on the green, caught a side of the cup and lipped out, leaving Kim dropping his club on the tee box in disbelief at the near-miss.
Kim said afterward that he could hear screams echoing from the far side of the third green, and he wasn’t sure what to make of them. Then tournament officials radioed the tee with news of the ace.
“After hearing that,” Kim said, “I was really happy because I wasn’t expecting it.”
Raleigh native Doc Redman, a Clemson alum, and journeyman Rob Oppenheim checked in at 16-under, two shots behind Kim. The 22-year-old Redman matched his career-best round with a 63 on Saturday. He’s in search of his first Tour victory.
“It was solid, it was consistent,” Redman said of his play. “I think I kind of lost track of where I was out there for a little while, just plugging along.”
Meanwhile, Oppenheim, a 40-year-old underdog story who has struggled to maintain his Tour card, shot a career-low 62.
Oppenheim has positioned himself to perhaps qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time. He has climbed to a ranking of 145 on the postseason list. The top 125 players advance to The Northern Trust next week and the first stop in the playoffs.
“It’s what we play for,” Oppenheim said of Sunday’s final pairing here with Kim, “to put ourselves in these situations and see how you handle it. I haven’t been in this situation, I’ve never been in one of the last two or three groups on Sunday, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’ve been fighting to keep my job or trying to get out here. Don’t get much more pressure than that.”
The Wyndham hurried to get Saturday’s round in ahead of the expected stormy weather, moving up tee times to 7 a.m. and sending the players off in threesomes on both sides of the course, rather than the traditional parade of twosomes that start on the first hole.
The dry conditions early gave way to a rush of birdies in bunches, and a race into lower and lower numbers.
Thirteen players finished the third round at 12-under or better, leaving them all within six shots of the lead on a Sedgefield course that’s prone to yield shootout-style scoring. Fifty-two of the 77 players who reached the weekend after Friday’s cut compiled rounds in the 60s on Saturday.
Jim Herman and Zach Johnson posted a pair of 9-under 61s, delivering the lowest score of the tournament thus far, and charged into contention.
“Gave myself good approaches, good looks at birdie,” Herman said. “You’ve got to be below the hole, got to have makeable putts out here or you’re going to be playing defensive. If you’re above the hole, you’re going to be just lagging (putts) all day long. I had a really good approach game (Saturday), I think I hit almost every green.”
Billy Horschel sits three shots back of Kim at 15-under for the tournament. Mark Hubbard and Herman are at 14-under, while Peter Malnati and former U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, the Raleigh native and Wake Forest alum, are at 13-under. Simpson won the 2011 Wyndham.
Kim won The Players Championship in May 2017, nine months after he claimed the 2016 Wyndham title. Those remain as his two Tour victories.
How low might Kim need to go during Sunday’s final round to become a two-time Wyndham winner?
“Maybe a lot, but I don’t want to think about the score,” he said. “That’s too much pressure. Just keep playing and then hopefully, yeah, go low.”
Kim played in Saturday’s final group with Tom Hoge and Talor Gooch. Along with Horschel, those four shared the tournament lead at 10-under after Friday’s second round.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Ace in the hole: Kim takes aim, shoots to Wyndham Championship lead
